


Still Water, Fan

by BlackMajjicDuchess



Series: Namesake [11]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Angst, Assassins & Hitmen, Death, Family, Family Dynamics, Fire, Gen, Honor, Hope, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Philosophy, Sadness, Superstition, Tragedy, Water
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-04
Updated: 2014-04-04
Packaged: 2018-01-18 04:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1415779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackMajjicDuchess/pseuds/BlackMajjicDuchess
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I got the idea in my head one day to bring some of the Naruto characters face-to-face with the thing they were named after for the first time. I thought it might be fun. Also accepting challenges!</p><p>Stories will be posted separately but as part of the Namesake series.</p><p>Part 11: Still Water, Fan</p><p>Shisui is the first to die, but the last to live.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Still Water, Fan

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ishimaru_Asuka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ishimaru_Asuka/gifts).



> NOTE: Again I operate on the hopeful assumption that Shisui's not dead. This particular story is a spinoff of my chapter story "Blind Man's Gambit." All current elements of plot CAN lead to this as an ending. 
> 
> To issue a challenge, just comment on one of the stories in the series with the name you'd like to see done. The only stipulation is that it HAS to be a name that has a meaning, and it has to be a meaning that is something one can encounter. Example: Madara means "spots." What the heck am I supposed to do with that? On the other hand, Naruto's name refers to some kind of fish cake, which is something he could confront somehow.
> 
> Shisui Uchiha challenge from Ishimaru_Asuka
> 
> Shisui = Still Water, perhaps Water Death (yay for bendy meanings!)  
> Uchiha = Fan

_“Father, why does the water keep moving like that?”_

_“The ripples?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_“You know our Clan crest?”_

_“It’s a fan.”_

_“Mhm. The water moves like that as long as the Uchiha thrive. It is the great Uchiha fan breathing out upon the still water, beating it into waves. When you look at the water, remember your Clan, and rejoice that you are never alone.”_

* * *

 

He sat alone at the end of the dock, listening to the chirp of crickets and the hoot of the owls. The moon was full and heavy, resting just above the lip of the horizon, illuminating everything as brightly as if it were still daytime. Its perfect twin reflected on the water below. His eyes—two of them now… a tragic blessing—gazed out upon the water. The surface was glassy, and an eerie mist drifted across like a ghost.

He had never seen the water so still. He was a man grown, and had long since stopped believing the tale his father had told him about the Uchiha fan being the reason that there were waves. It had just been another sweet lie to make the world seem like a better place than it was. Still, seeing the water’s motionless, plastic surface reminded him of the words, and even if they weren’t true… they were appropriate for the business he had brought here tonight, for the water was as lifeless as the Clan itself. 

He breathed in the warm summer air, tasting the mist, ruminating on all of the events that had brought him to this point. How he had helped Itachi spy on their clan; how he had faked his death and hidden himself away, trying to help Itachi in secret; how he had trained each day to keep his sightless body strong; how he had dragged his friend away from the cold grip of death, then turned around to battle Madara as a cohesive team with Obito and Sasuke; and how the four of them and Kakashi and Rin had been something almost akin to family again…

His thumb ran over the steel, tracing the lines of the leaf, and the line that had been carved through it. Itachi’s forehead protector. He tossed it into the lake. Ripples coursed outward, concentric circles widening until they were lost to his eyes, traveling to the opposite shore. One puff of breeze from the strongest Uchiha fan that had ever lived. Suicide, he thought with sadness. In the end, Itachi hadn’t been able to handle the everlasting peace and the demons of his past. It had been three years since he had died (again), but the ache stung as sharply as if it had been yesterday.

He reached beside him and picked up another one. It was newer, cleaner, unblemished… it had been a replacement when Sasuke had chosen to rejoin his village and reinstate the clan. They’d all decided he deserved to be the head of the clan. He was the only one of them who had not officially been declared dead before that point. Assassinated. It turned out that Sasuke’s defenses were flawless, but his wife had been a foreigner, and a skilled assassin. He’d gotten careless as he’d grown cocky. The Sharingan did not protect them from being deceived by the ones you trusted. All of them had known that too well. It was a mercy that Itachi had not lived to see his brother's mutilated body. The memory of it haunted Shisui to this day. Sasuke’s headband went into the lake, too, the ripples racing the direction that Itachi’s had gone. The ripples, like the boy, still had some catching up to do.

Obito’s forehead protector was as new as Sasuke’s had been. Killed in action, serving ANBU. He and Kakashi had been partnered together, as was only right. They had shared a set of Sharingan, like Itachi and himself had. Shisui had never heard the details of his death. It was top secret. Classified. He wished that he had known the man better, so that he could spend more than a moment honoring his memory. He had been a traitor for most of his life, but his intentions had been born of a deep, resounding sadness that of which Shisui couldn't even pretend to sympathize. Minds greater than his had forgiven Obito, so Shisui would honor the man he had become in his later years. Into the lake went the hitae-ate. It sank into the greedy waters with hardly a sound, sending another Fan’s ripple across the still surface.

The last one had given him cause for pause. Kakashi hadn’t been an Uchiha, but he’d had the Sharingan for most of his life, and something about honoring him too had just felt… right. Obito and he had shared their eyes. They were strongest together. Ultimately, it had been the fall of Obito—and Rin—that had led to his demise. He’d been too weak alone. Killed in action. Again, the details were classified, but Shisui didn’t need a mission report to tell him that Kakashi had no more reason to live. Might as well have called this one a suicide, too. He dropped the last headband into the water, the cloth band slithering off his open palm. The shiver that echoed across the water’s surface told him all he needed to know. Kakashi had been Uchiha enough for it, so he was Uchiha enough for Shisui.

He kept on watching until all the ripples had passed and the water grew still again. “And now, I am truly alone,” he said aloud. Clan Killer, Clan Head, the mysterious “Tobi,” and the Copy Ninja… Fans that played bellows for the Will of Fire no more. Shisui was the first to die and the last to live. He had far more eyes than he even needed now, but he’d saved them for a good reason.

Back at home, there was to be one more Uchiha, and Shisui would be sure that the Sharingan endured.

With a sad smile, he stood. He wanted to imagine that the four of them were still out there somewhere. They were simply on a mission, keeping Konoha safe as they had always done in their cryptic, roundabout ways. Just before he turned away from the water, a wind whipped up, and the still surface of the lake chopped into action once more before the breeze was done with it. Shisui reveled in the feel of the air upon his face, feeling less lost and alone. The hopeful lie in the wind lent him strength. 

 _Yeah, they're out there somewhere,_ he thought, turning away.


End file.
